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bawallington 's review for:
Beautiful Country
by Qian Julie Wang
"It was then that I realized I could be homesick for a place even though I no longer knew where home was." -Beautiful Country, Qian Julie Wang
Looking to escape shadow of the oppressive Chinese government looming over their lives, Qian's parents pack up seven-year old Qian and surreptitiously slip away to try for a better life in America. But life in Mei Guo - the "beautiful country" - is not gold paved streets and candy for the Wang family. Ma Ma and Ba Ba - once university professors in China - work demeaning under-the-table jobs in sweatshops, processing plants, and seedy offices; Qian - a happy, healthy, boisterous child in China - becomes withdrawn, hungry, and isolated in school and at home; and what began as a journey for a better life becomes a numb crawl to survive as their small, desperate family comes apart at the seams.
An affecting story of a childhood in the shadow of American poverty, racism, and immigration policy, Wang demonstrates tremendous honesty and vulnerability in detailing her own emotional journey, the transformation of her parents under the pressures of their hidden existence, and the sadnessess, big and small, of being a young girl without resources in New York City. The writing is often beautiful, especially in the final chapters as we reach the full power of Wang's reflection on her own life and trauma. If the entire book had read like the epilogue, I would have been enthralled. Unfortunately, I am just not a fan of the "precocious child narrator", a voice the author often adopts throughout the novel (and, to be fair, she was undeniably a precocious child). The attempts to combine a child's perspective with highly descriptive writing results in the prose feeling a bit stretched thin: a metaphor that doesn't quite land (and then is re-used several times) or an observation that distracts from the narrative to demonstrate what an intelligent child she was. This seems to be an entirely "me" preference, given the (very deserved!) glowing reviews. The emotional impact is undeniable (), and it's an important layer to add to our country's conversation about immigration, poverty, and what we owe the people who are too often kept in the shadows.
Looking to escape shadow of the oppressive Chinese government looming over their lives, Qian's parents pack up seven-year old Qian and surreptitiously slip away to try for a better life in America. But life in Mei Guo - the "beautiful country" - is not gold paved streets and candy for the Wang family. Ma Ma and Ba Ba - once university professors in China - work demeaning under-the-table jobs in sweatshops, processing plants, and seedy offices; Qian - a happy, healthy, boisterous child in China - becomes withdrawn, hungry, and isolated in school and at home; and what began as a journey for a better life becomes a numb crawl to survive as their small, desperate family comes apart at the seams.
An affecting story of a childhood in the shadow of American poverty, racism, and immigration policy, Wang demonstrates tremendous honesty and vulnerability in detailing her own emotional journey, the transformation of her parents under the pressures of their hidden existence, and the sadnessess, big and small, of being a young girl without resources in New York City. The writing is often beautiful, especially in the final chapters as we reach the full power of Wang's reflection on her own life and trauma. If the entire book had read like the epilogue, I would have been enthralled. Unfortunately, I am just not a fan of the "precocious child narrator", a voice the author often adopts throughout the novel (and, to be fair, she was undeniably a precocious child). The attempts to combine a child's perspective with highly descriptive writing results in the prose feeling a bit stretched thin: a metaphor that doesn't quite land (and then is re-used several times) or an observation that distracts from the narrative to demonstrate what an intelligent child she was. This seems to be an entirely "me" preference, given the (very deserved!) glowing reviews. The emotional impact is undeniable (